President’s Perspective

American Exceptionalism

A message from the president

“Getting There Together” is the theme of FAAMA’s 35th Annual Gathering of Eagles.

French author Alexis de Tocqueville, in his 1835 work Democracy in America, described the United States this way:

“The position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one. Their strictly Puritanical origin, their exclusively commercial habits, even the country they inhabit, which seems to divert their minds from the pursuit of science, literature, and the arts, the proximity of Europe, which allows them to neglect these pursuits without relapsing into barbarism, a thousand special causes, of which I have only been able to point out the most important, have singularly concurred to x the mind of the American upon purely practical objects. His passions, his wants, his education, and everything about him seem to unite in drawing the native of the United States earthward; his religion alone bids him turn, from time to time, a transient and distracted glance to heaven. Let us cease, then, to view all democratic nations under the example of the American people.”

Many people believe this is the first reference to the concept known today as “American exceptionalism.”

I’ve had the opportunity to travel to 29 other countries in my lifetime, and while many of these places are beautiful, fun places to visit — with friendly people and a multitude of great attributes — there is no country like the United States of America.

In the debate over privatization of the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS), proponents argue that other countries have moved their service provider out of a government system and into a privatized or corporatized system, and it has worked well. They use this argument to suggest that if it was good for Canada or for the European Union, then it must be good for the U.S.

U.S. Versus Canadian ATC Systems

The U.S. Air Traffic Control (ATC) system is by far the largest and most complex system in the world. The next largest system is Canada, which is the model being used to promote the current privatization idea.

However, the U.S. ATC system handles roughly 10 times the amount of tra c handled by Canada.

When proponents are challenged to defend the comparison to Canada, they say the Canadian model is “scalable.” The argument of scalability might be valid if the underlying data actually supported it. It does not.

U.S. and Canadian ATC systems are vastly different in many aspects. The majority of aircraft handled by the Canadians are over fights, meaning they will not land or depart at airports controlled by the Canadians.

Controlling over fight traffic in level flight on predetermined routes is much less complex than the additional workload and judgment required to control arriving and departing aircraft as well.

The Canadian air traffic control workload is not less than that of the U.S. controller because of newer equipment or a steady stream of funding to the system. The workload is less because it is simply easier to work over fights without the burden of aircraft landing and taking off, climbing and descending, and accelerating and slowing down.

Another reason the two systems are not scalable is due to significant differences in the total number of airports in each system. The U.S. ATC system has 13,513 airports, while the Canadian system only has 1,493, yet the two countries have virtually the same landmass of 3.8 million square miles each.

One can look all over Canada and never find a location with multiple airports in close proximity — with the associated complex airspace — comparable to New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles.

The two systems also are not scalable because the mix of aircraft is radically different. The U.S. has 199,927 general aviation aircraft, while Canada only has 36,375. And, compared to Canada, the U.S. has 32 times the number of military aircraft: 13,717 to only 426.

If U.S. and Canadian systems were comparable, perhaps the “scalable” model would be valid, but they are not.

Government-Managed ATC and Safety

ATC privatization has been debated for decades, but the debate was strangely silent after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that used airliners to kill thousands of Americans.

On that fateful day, it was a government-managed ATC system that quickly put thousands of airborne aircraft on the ground safely, and for 10 years, proponents of privatization quietly had to acknowledge that air traffic control was an inherently governmental function.

To this day, most Americans are unaware of the national security, drug interdiction, law enforcement, and military operations that U.S. air traffic controllers and managers are involved in every day. With this in mind, our elected leaders need to ask: Is it wise to convert the U.S. ATC system to a corporation and take it out of the operational control of the U.S. government?

The debate seems to revolve around the much larger question about the role of government, and whether some government functions are better suited for other-than-government entities. Other countries have converted smaller, less complex ATC systems to a private/corporate model, and for them, it works.

There are many things other countries do very well, but that does not mean the U.S. should follow the lead of Canada or the European Union in ATC privatization. It has been said, “There are two kinds of countries…those that use the Metric system…and those that have sent men to the Moon.”

I wouldn’t want to trade the U.S. military for the military of any other country in the world. The same can be said of their space programs, their weather forecasting capabilities, and their ATC systems.

Being Best in the World is OK

It is perfectly fine to be the best in the world. We should not feel guilty about it anymore than we should feel guilty about winning gold medals in the Olympics.

We also should not rush to make our ATC system like those of other countries, when it is abundantly unclear whether this experiment will bring more safety or more efficiency to U.S. ATC.

There definitely is a place for American exceptionalism. Today, the U.S. ATC system is undisputedly the safest, busiest, and most complex in the world. And, the professional men and women who work for the FAA are responsible for making and keeping the U.S. ATC system truly exceptional!